A routine flight to Bengaluru turned into a stress test for one passenger, and her story has now reignited an old argument about manners in shared spaces. In a post that spread quickly, she described sitting near a family whose child shouted for attention for most of the trip. The child was “about 10 to 12 years old,” she wrote, and the parents seemed to find the outbursts amusing rather than disruptive. What bothered her most was not just the noise, but the feeling that nobody felt accountable for how it affected everyone else around them.
She said she tried to handle it politely once the volume made it hard to focus on her book. “I politely asked him to be quiet,” she wrote, expecting at least a small effort to calm things down. Instead, the response came from the boy’s mother and it stunned her. “This isn’t a library,” the mother replied, a line that instantly became the lightning rod for the entire discussion. For the passenger, it was a signal that the family saw the cabin as their territory, not a space shared with dozens of strangers.
According to her post, things escalated after that exchange instead of settling down. The family began playing antakshari, a popular sing along word game, which turned the row into something closer to a mini party than a flight. She ended her account with a blunt takeaway about what she sees as a growing problem in public behavior. “Some people clearly lack basic manners in public spaces, and unfortunately they pass that attitude on to their children,” she wrote. The point, in her view, was never about expecting silence, but about recognizing limits when others cannot simply walk away.
Today’s flight experience was horrible.
— Ritu Joon (@ritujoon2j) January 15, 2026
A child around 10–12 years old kept shouting constantly at his parents just to get attention, and his parents seemed to find it cute.
I was reading a book, so I politely asked him to keep quiet. His mother replied, “This is not a…
Commenters were quick to challenge the mother’s library comeback, arguing that the wrong standard was being applied. One of the most shared reactions reframed the issue in simple terms. “Maybe it isn’t a library, but it is a public space,” the commenter wrote, stressing that one family is only a small fraction of the cabin. The same comment took aim at the idea that everyone else should just tolerate it. “They should show respect to the other 98 percent who don’t want to listen to their child,” the person added, putting a number to what many quiet passengers often feel but rarely say out loud.
A second thread focused on parenting style and the instinct to defend a child no matter the circumstance. “Yes, they support their child no matter what,” one response said, suggesting the problem starts when adults treat any complaint as an attack. Another commenter sharpened that idea with a comparison that resonated far beyond air travel. “If it isn’t a library, it definitely isn’t their living room,” the person wrote, capturing the frustration of people who feel public areas are increasingly treated like private lounges. The argument was less anti kid and more pro boundaries, meaning kids can be kids, but adults still set the tone.
The conversation then broadened into stories from other everyday settings where people are stuck sharing space. One commenter recalled a scene in an actual library where children ran around yelling until one threw a book at another child. Only then did a librarian step in, and the father, who had been on his phone, pushed back with a familiar excuse. “They’re just kids,” he reportedly said, a phrase many readers recognized instantly. The replies to that anecdote carried a common message that the real issue is not childhood energy, but adults who refuse to guide it.
Another person described dealing with a similar dynamic in a Zara store, saying some shoppers “have no sense of space” and act loudly as if it is their right. She claimed that when someone speaks up, the reaction can swing from instant defensiveness to accusations meant to shut the conversation down. As frustrations piled up, the original poster voiced the question that hovered behind many of the replies. “How do you stop people like this,” she asked, reflecting how powerless people can feel when social pressure no longer works. It is one thing to roll your eyes, but another to spend hours trapped next to behavior that erodes everyone’s comfort.
Plenty of commenters pointed out that noise problems are not limited to children, and some argued adults may be worse. People cited passengers watching videos at full volume, chatting loudly during takeoff, and treating buses and trains like personal phone booths. One user even shared a photo of a man who, they claimed, watched “Reels” at maximum volume for an entire flight without being challenged by nearby passengers or crew. The larger point was that many people have lost the habit of being quiet in public, or even the awareness that public means other people exist. For those who travel often, this shift feels less like a handful of bad experiences and more like the new baseline.
A frequent traveler summed up that fatigue in a comment that struck a nerve. “I don’t remember the last time I had a quiet flight,” he wrote, adding that even business class can come with nonstop chatter from nearby seats. He said noise canceling headphones are often his only escape, a practical tip that many modern travelers swear by. But the original poster replied that technology has limits when the disruption is constant and close. “I have Pro 2, but believe me, today they didn’t save me,” she wrote, underlining that you should not need expensive gear just to get through a flight in peace.
Beyond the viral back and forth, the debate touches something basic about how shared spaces work. An airplane cabin is a closed environment where strangers are asked to coexist for hours, and small choices, volume, tone, awareness, can make the difference between tolerable and miserable. Antakshari itself is a cultural staple for many families, but context matters, and a game that feels harmless in a living room can become intrusive at 35,000 feet. Noise canceling headphones can help because they use microphones and sound processing to reduce steady background noise, yet they cannot erase sharp voices nearby, especially if the person is shouting. In the end, etiquette is not about banning kids from public life, it is about adults modeling consideration so everyone can share space without turning it into a contest of who can be loudest.
What do you think is the fairest way to handle disruptive noise on flights without turning every situation into a confrontation, share your thoughts in the comments.
